Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

Lesson 8: Developments in Naval Technology and its Impact on

Strategy and Policy, 1865-1890

Learning Objectives:• Know the status of the U.S. Navy after the Civil War.

• Know the principal changes in warship hull design, propulsion, and armaments during the period 1865-1890.

• Know the principal milestones in the evolution of warship armament during the period.

• Know principal naval weapons systems conceived or adopted by nations desiring inexpensive methods to overcome or neutralize expensive naval hardware, such as the capital ship.

Learning Objectives:

• Know the technological responses of the major naval powers to counter the threats of low cost weapons.

• Know the reasons H.M.S. Warrior marks the beginning and end of this period as a major step in the evolution of the principal weapons of naval might.

• Know congressional attitudes toward the Navy in this postwar period. Comprehend the changes in naval technology prior to World War I.

Learning Objectives:

• Comprehend (explain) the difficulty in maintaining technological leadership and the debate over whether to remain technologically current.

• Comprehend the reasons for the re building of the U.S. Navy and the historical conditions accounting for the emergence and success of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan's lectures and book.

Remember our Themes:

• The Navy as an Instrument of Foreign Policy

• Interaction between Congress and the Navy

• Interservice Relations• Technology• Leadership• Strategy and Tactics• Evolution of Naval Doctrine

International Affairs (Late 19th Century):

• “Pax Britannica”• Era of peace continues - British Empire dominates the

seas.

• Japan - Meiji Restoration• Continued increase in foreign trade.• Rapid modernization begins.

• German and Italian unifications - 1870-71.• Austro-Hungarian Empire’s “Dual Monarchy” -

1867.• Continued collapse of Ottoman Empire through

1800’s.• Balkan Peninsula: Independence of European states.

• New era of European imperialism:• European powers vigorously compete to establish

colonies on remaining world territories.

Unification of Germany - 1871

Ottovon

Bismarck

“Iron Chancellor”of the

German Empire

Evolution of Warship Construction:• Construction materials:

• Steel hulls replace iron hulls.• Steel has higher strength and less weight than

iron.

• Compartmentation.• Protective decks.

• Armor protection.• Iron to steel-plated iron to steel.• Location of armor:

• Vulnerable areas get more armor.• Unable to armor the entire ship due to weight

of armor.• Rams

H.M.S. Warrior (1860):

U.S.S. Monitor (1862):

Battle of Lissa – 1866:• First battle between ironclad fleets.

• Adriatic Sea off Dalmatian coast (present-day Croatia).

• Italians attempt amphibious assault of the island of Lissa without command of the sea.

• Austrian Fleet takes “V” formation.• Breaks the Italian line.

• Ferdinand Maximilian sinks Re d’Italia with the ram.

• Rams in warship design:• Remain prominent until late into the

nineteenth century.

Iron-clad Screw-Frigate Re D’Italia:

Battle of Lissa

Lissa

Battle of Lissa

Lissa

Battle of Lissa

Lissa

Battle of Lissa

Lissa

Evolution of Armament:• Muzzle loaders to breech loaders.

• Safety and rate of fire increases.

• Rifled guns.• Increased accuracy and ranges.

• Mounting of guns.• Hydraulic recoil mechanisms.

• Cartridge shells.• Round and charge are combined.• Rate of fire increases.• Greater penetrating power and range.

• Self-propelled torpedo:• Invented by Englishman Robert Whitehead in

1866.

Ship Propulsion Innovations• More efficient steam engines

developed.• Increases in speed.• Longer ranges.•Coaling stations required at regular

intervals while transiting overseas.•Further incentive to acquire overseas colonies.

• Many ships still use sail as alternate means of propulsion.• Hybrids with stacks and sails.

New Propulsion Ships Coaling

Revolving Turret:

Low Cost Weapons vs “Capital” Ships:

• Capital ships:• Large ships with heavy guns - core of a battle

fleet.•Battleships (Heavily armored).•Cruisers (Faster but less heavily armored

than battleships).

• New low cost weapons:• Self-propelled torpedoes launched from

“torpedo boats”.• Mines - Stationary torpedoes to protect

coastlines and ports.

Countermeasures• Continued advances in compartmentation.

• New ship types:• “Torpedo boat destroyer” shortened to

just “destroyer” used to screen capital ships from torpedo attacks.

• Minesweepers used to clear minefields.

New Submarine Design:

Torpedo Boat:

Torpedoes

Automobile Torpedo in Action

Post-Civil War U.S. Navy:

• 1865-1870 -- Decline of the Navy.• Large reductions in naval appropriations:

700 to 52 ships.• Isolationism due to the need for:

•Reconstruction of the South.•Continued westward expansion.

• Primary mission: Protection of maritime trade overseas.

Post-Civil War U.S. Navy• Naval Doctrine

• Commerce raiding and coastal defense still emphasized.

• Alabama Claims -- 1871-1872• International arbitration at Geneva.• Great Britain pays United States large award.• Based on Union merchant ships captured by

Confederate commerce raiders which were built in Great Britain.

Rebirth of the U.S. Navy:

•Naval funding begins to increase in 1880.

•ABCD ships - construction begins in 1883.•Steam (Sail used as secondary means of propulsion).•Steel hulls and heavy armor.•Rifled breech-loading guns.

•Battleships - construction begins in 1889.

Rebirth of the U.S. Navy:

• Naval Institute established by naval officers - 1873.• Proceedings - professional journal for

naval personnel.• Office of Naval Intelligence

established - 1882.• Naval War College established -

1884.• Engineering Duty Officers enter the

Line -- 1899.• Increased importance of technical

knowledge is apparent.

Naval War College:• Commerce raiding and coastal defense

were the accepted strategies of the U.S. Navy after the Civil War.

• Strategies seemed obsolete to an influential group of American naval leaders.

• Commodore Stephen B. Luce• Establishes Naval War College in 1885 at

Newport, Rhode Island to:• “Apply modern scientific methods to the

study and raise naval warfare from the empirical stage to the dignity of a science.”

• Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan is one of the first instructors to serve under Luce.

Alfred Thayer Mahan

“An untroubled assurance of peace is no guarantee that war

will not come.”

“Historians generally have been unfamiliar with the conditions of the sea, having as to it neither special interest nor special knowledge; and the profound determining influence of maritime strength upon great issues has consequently been overlooked.”

The Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 1660-1783

• Published in 1890 - Mahan’s first book.• Based on series of Naval War College

lectures.

• Strong arguments for the U.S.:• Maintaining naval strength during

peacetime.• Building a fleet of capital ships.• Acquiring colonies abroad for secure

coaling stations.

• Ideas strongly appeals to:- Industrialists - Merchants

- Nationalists - Imperialists

Learning Objectives:

• Know the status of the U.S. Navy after the Civil War.

• Know the principal changes in warship hull design, propulsion, and armaments during the period 1865-1890.

• Know the principal milestones in the evolution of warship armament during the period.

• Know principal naval weapons systems conceived or adopted by nations desiring inexpensive methods to overcome or neutralize expensive naval hardware, such as the capital ship.

Learning Objectives:

• Know the technological responses of the major naval powers to counter the threats of low cost weapons.

• Know the reasons HMS Warrior marks the beginning and end of this period as a major step in the evolution of the principal weapons of naval might.

• Know congressional attitudes toward the Navy in this postwar period. Comprehend the changes in naval technology prior to World War I.

Learning Objectives:

• Comprehend (explain) the difficulty in maintaining technological leadership and the debate over whether to remain technologically current.

• Comprehend the reasons for the re building of the U.S. Navy and the historical conditions accounting for the emergence and success of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan's lectures and book.

Discussion

Next time: The Dawning of the Age of Mahan